HI! I purchased an 86 berlinetta a few months ago from an ebay seller, sight unseen except for photos......they were smart enought to tell me the tires were BAD. I became disenchanted with it when the lights don't work (intermittent), the cruise control didn't work, the turn signals didn't work, the a/c didn't work, the gaskets are disintegrating and it leaks in the rain, the horn didn't work, it ran on and on after it was turned off, it was so musty/moldy smelling, it was FILLED with spiders and cobwebs, and the other day as I was cruising down the road with a couple of those problems fixed and the t-tops off, my headliner started pulling loose in a lot of places....apparently this has been garaged in a temp controlled garage, mostly in PA then here in Florida, but since I own it and don't have a garage it is now in the heat and stuff must be drying out, that is all I can think of....I did buy a car cover to keep it from getting wet inside...I bought a light switch control module but the mechanic says that it may need the panel of buttons as well....I get headlights IF I constantly hold down the high beam button, I do have fog lamps when the button is pressed, we fixed a/c, horn, cruise control, still needs tuning for runon, and I was told the universal joint should be replaced asap......I paid almost $6,000 then the tires and parts...I keep waffling on selling and taking the loss, but when I drive it it sounds SOOOOO American! Does anyone know the Florida area as to where I could take it to fix the headliner and gaskets? I am in west palm beach and we have a fishing camp in clewiston.......HELP! I need hope that it will be worth it!!!!!!

 

good gravy Marie. Please tell me that's a typo and you paid $600, not $6000!!!

I'm to your west on the lovely gulf side and in the midst of restoring an 89 RS. (check out my budget 89 resto thread)

feel free to pm me if you prefer

 

A comma was purposely put there, I have a feeling it's not a typo. Maybe the car only has 10k miles, that could justify the high price tag....somewhat.
The headlights sounds like it might be a bad dimmer switch, located on top of the steering column closer to the firewall. I hope you find someone reasonably priced to work on the car, as you're already financially buried with it now.

 

Yeah, no typo, she was about $5,800 including the transport over from the west coast of Fla. Then a few hundred for tires immediately needed.....as for the dimer switch, the berlinetta had a weird feature in it to make it a "space-age" model it has a "pod" for the lights and a radio/cassette "pod", making it hard to simply rewire the light features....

 

you paid 6000 for berlinetta sight unseen and nothing worked wholly crap batman to the batmobile we gotta meet this guy

 

Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, well, actually I saw the pics on ebay and they were sweeeeet, but they didn't mention anything being wrong except the tires, in fact they said it was low-milage, garaged and would be a really nice weekend driver or more if you didn't mind putting the milage on it......to me, the simple disclosure of lights etc not working seems like a coomon courtesy type of thing.....then they got pissy when I told them how upset I was! First he tried to treat me like a little girl about the lights then realized he didn't even know they were a wholly different type of connection! Then he sent me a rotten box of rusty moldy connections that the mechanic just laughed at. Then he questioned the integrity of my mechanic, once I expained that he was referred to me by a Marine vet who has taken every vehicle of his to him for at least 20 years and I am a Navy vet, he backed down on questioning his intentions, but was still rude and snotty!!

 

Sounds like the seller wasn't being forthright, but you needed to take a look if you were to spend that much on anything. I hope it all works out for you.

 

i feel sorry for you,people who take advantage of someone who might not know or are just learning,but share the same passion for cars,its a hell of a eye opener and i hope not but could be a passion killer,people like that are just a--holes and we can only hope god is a car guy and will be waiting for them.

 

I just bought an old VW kit car from craigslist. Dont get me wrong, I got to go look at it and only paid 500 bucks, but the seller was a TOTAL scam artist. I knew this as I bought the car, but heres the summary.

He told me body parts for the Bradley GT kit car were readily available at JC Whitney. I busted out my internet capable phone and looked....no body parts. He just said...'there used to be'. I was calling his bull**** before I even bought the car.

Anyways, he tells me the car was up and running just last summer. Promised me the engine and transmission were mint. The brakes didnt work but he blames it on a master cylinder. I get the car home....the gasoline was varnish. The carb linkage was frozen solid. The ENTIRE brake system was phucked. (all 4 wheel cylinders were frozen) The gas pedal was even frozen in its mount. The generator wasnt even wired in (its a kit car, remember) and the none of the wiring was hooked up for anything else. It was pretty obvious this car hasnt been driven in almost a decade.....

My FAVORITE part was the little metal tag he gave me with 6 almost unreadable digits. He tells me its the VIN plate off the donor body. Turns out, old VW's have their VIN's stamped on the transmission tube. I have no idea what this tag was....its NOT the VIN.

Im glad I was ready for this when I bought this project.....

seebeemom, you got f'd in the A. (And not the way you Navy folks like. 8*) I hope you can recover this car and stop dumping money in it. Old Camaro's are a drug. They are addicting....Either quit NOW or realize you will be a slave to this car for the next several years. How much more does she need to be a nice daily driver?

PS- Im allowed to make Navy jokes. 11 Years in the Army....still serving.

 

Oh Scott...quit whining!
If you want, I'll take the Bradley off your hands for $500, even after that description you gave.
Btw, the VW does have a vin tag that's riveted to the dash top as well, but it is more than 6 digits long.